BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 12. All facilities of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas, have been filled with gas, Trend reports via the ICGB AD, the project company.
Reportedly, ICGB submitted to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works an updated proposal for the introduction of phasing of the implementation of the remaining activities for the start of commercial operation of the facility.
“Currently, all main construction activities for the implementation of the project have been completed, and since mid-June all facilities have been filled with gas and successfully tested with actual quantities of natural gas. The gas pipeline and all the adjacent above-ground facilities – seven block valves, two gas metering stations and one dispatch center – are completed and technically sound, which was established both by the construction supervision of the project and by a number of inspections and tests carried out in recent months. To date, all 182 km and the adjacent facilities are filled with natural gas at a pressure of 40 bar. The execution of secondary activities, which are not directly related to the operation of the interconnector but are part of the planned project activities under the ECP contract, is ongoing,” said the company.
Aiming at the earliest possible introduction of IGB into commercial operation and speeding up the administrative processes necessary for the issuance of Act 15 and Act 16 for the territory of Bulgaria and the equivalent permits for Greece, ICGB submitted a proposal to the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for establishing phasing of the project. The main goal is that all activities necessary for the start of commercial operation are carried out as a priority in phase 1, which would allow a timely start of natural gas transmission through the interconnector. All other activities that are not directly related to the operation of the facility are included in a separate phase. They will continue to be implemented in parallel with the operation of the pipeline.
In phase 1, the highest priority activities include: the already completed construction of the gas pipeline and the above-ground facilities, testing of cathodic protection, laying signs along the gas pipeline, completing the integration and testing of the SCADA system for automatic control and management of the interconnector, testing of the fire protection system of the dispatch center, etc.
Among the set activities for the other phase are: finalizing the placement of spare optical cable, implementing anti-erosion measures along the route of the gas pipeline, completion of road to the gas metering station near Stara Zagora.
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